Full Swing
by Aika-san
Summary: Tradegy seems to follow Sora and Leon, but despite that, they try to find solace in the few things and people that make them happy. Shounenai RikuSora


_Whoa, it's been awhile since I've written anything. I don't know why I even got the idea to write this, but it seemed like it was at least worth a shot. This is a really weird fic, it's even weird to me. It's a complete AU (as usual), and it's of the shounen-ai variety. But despite a few things that bother me (like the writing style I wrote this in), I hope it's atleast a little enjoyable._

**Full Swing **

"Please, mom. It's one of the last games of the season."

"Sorry, Sora but no. I have things to do on Saturday and I don't know if I can make it."

Leon looked up from the television, the conversation between Sora and their mom wasn't new. Every Friday night, the younger sibling would ask his mom to come watch him play baseball on Saturday afternoon. Every time, mom would say no, it's been the same for years. Sora still asked though, already knowing the answer to his own question.

"You never want to come."

"I do want to come, but my job comes first," Mom winced as she said that. She knew it sounded a little harsh but, money was important. Money was what kept everything afloat, not some child's baseball game.

"You always say that! Sometimes I wonder if you ever want to bother to spend time with us!"

As usual, Sora ran out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Leon sighed, signaling his stance on the situation. He went back to watching whatever was on television from his place on the blue living room couch.

"He just doesn't understand," the mother muttered quietly as se made her way up the staircase to go to her bedroom.

"… Idiot," Leon said quietly.

He wasn't referring to his little brother.

(XXX)

"Sora, teach me how to swing!" Yuffie was always at the usually dismal and empty docks near the lake. It was her personal hiding place, despite being in the open. She always welcomed anyone who showed up though, especially Sora and his brother Leon. Her bright and cheery personality was something a lot of people liked, and so it was often odd to see her by herself.

"Why don't you ever ask my brother? He's a lot better than me," Sora said, his tone of voice told the girl what happened.

'Same old argument I suppose,' she thought to herself. She tightened the yellow scarf she wore around her neck, to make sure it didn't flutter too much in the wind blowing off the lake. "I always forget to ask him!" She wanted to keep a positive front, just for Sora's sake.

"I would teach you, but I don't have a bat now," was Sora's excuse, but Yuffie didn't mind. She never really cared for baseball, but she would show interest in the things her boyfriend and his younger brother liked.

They were both standing on a fairly old, wooden walkway of a dock. The docking area was long since abandoned, since the fishing industry died a few years ago due to water contamination. People were just too paranoid about the fish from the lake being tainted with something, too, so they stopped buying fish from the region. There were still a few ships left floating in the water, tethered to the docks with ropes that were soon to tear away completely.

"That's okay, maybe some other time," Yuffie said, wrapping her green hoodie tighter around herself. "Where's Leon?"

"He's at home still, watching T.V."

"Tomorrow, I'm going to come to your game. Would that be okay?" Yuffie didn't have to ask, but it was a habit.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind. You're the only person that comes anyway." Sora took notice to the older girl's shivering. "Are you that cold, Yuffie? I don't see how you can stand here on the lake of all places if you get cold so easily." It was only mid September, so the weather wasn't all that cold yet, even on the lake front.

"Oh, my sickness is just acting up again. It's nothing to worry about."

"When's the next time you're going to the doctor?"

"Next week, that's why I asked you where Leon was. I wanted to know if he was staying home tonight so I could call and ask him if he could give me a ride," Yuffie answered. She knew it pained Leon to take her to her doctor appointments, but once she told him about them, he would take her.

"Oh," was the only thing Sora could really think of to say. He didn't know much about what was wrong with Yuffie, but Leon told him that from time to time she would black out or shiver from feeling 'cold.'

"What time was it when you left the house, Sora?" she asked.

"A little after seven, so I guess you better get home," he replied, looking over in Yuffie's direction, shoving his hands in his pants' pockets.

"Yeah, it's time for me to get home. I don't want my family worrying about me or anything." Yuffie turned around, said her goodbyes to Sora, and left. She figured it'd be best to leave him alone for awhile anyway.

(XXX)  


It was a little after eight o'clock when he got home, so Sora's mom wasn't mad about that. Leon hadn't moved from his position in front of the television set, Sora noticed. Leon hadn't even bothered to change his clothes yet. Still in his dingy white shirt and dirty black pants, mom had told him about putting his filthiness on her furniture quite often.

"I guess she didn't notice yet." Sora sat down next to his older brother.

"She never notices anymore; she's either too busy or too tired to care."

"You are ruining the furniture though," Sora joked. "Did Yuffie call yet?"

"Hn, what? No, she didn't call. Why do you ask?" Leon looked at his brother and not at the T.V for once.

"She was at the docks; she said she was going to call you to ask if you could take her to the doctor next week."

Leon let out a sigh. He never enjoyed taking her to the doctor's office, mainly because the place reminded him of how _sick_ Yuffie truly was. "Sora, go get me the phone. She's so empty-headed, she probably forgot."

Sora found the cordless phone in the kitchen, where it usually was when their mom was making dinner. She had the horrible habit of talking on the phone while cooking. He warned her that it wasn't exactly safe, but she always just ignored him.

"Here," Sora said when he made his way back to the living room, and threw the phone for Leon to catch. He plopped back down onto the couch. Even though his eyes were focused on the television, his ears were tuned into the phone conversation.

It wasn't long before Leon was talking to someone who clearly wasn't Yuffie. "I'm on my way" was all Leon said before turning the phone off and standing up, heading towards the front door. "Sora, something happened over at Yuffie's place and so now she's in the hospital. I'm heading over that way, make sure to tell mom I'm gone if she asks."

"Uh, okay," Sora managed to say before Leon slipped out the door. He listened as he heard his brother's car pull away from the curb and glide down the street.

He grabbed the remote and flipped through channels, searching for anything worth watching. They had over two hundred channels, and yet nothing was on. It was Friday, no less. Sora gave up, and settled on cartoons. Completely sprawling himself over the couch, he let out a tired sigh.

"Sora, where'd Leon go?" He hadn't heard his mom sneaking up on him, but she was standing behind the piece of furniture he was laying on.

"He went to the hospital. Something happened to Yuffie, but he didn't say what," he mumbled his reply.

Mom's face took on a worried look, but she just said "Oh, okay, I suppose." She made her way around the couch, and moved her son's legs enough so she could sit down. "Sora, can I ask you a question?"

Sora was surprised at that. He looked at his mother. He noticed the grey hairs she had in her brown hair; he never noticed them before "What?"

"Do you think I'm a terrible person? Every time that you said I never spend time with you guys makes me think that I am." She was playing the bottom of her white blouse; she was nervous. She was nervous about the answer her son would hopefully give.

Sora couldn't answer. There'd be no way he'd answer that. "I'm going to bed," he said, avoiding all eye contact with her as he stood up. She just looked on quietly as he made his way up the staircase towards his bedroom.

Once she heard the door close, she came to the conclusion, "I guess I am a horrible parent."

(XXX)

Morning wasn't a horrible thing to Sora. He liked the way the light spilled into his room from his one window next to his bed. It just poured over everything in his small room; his bed, his floor, the desk shoved against the wall, and the dresser shoved against the opposite wall.

He merely rolled over away from the light; it was starting to bother his eyes. He blinked when he heard the familiar voices of Leon and their mother. He immediately sat up in his bed, trying to hear what they were saying.

"_I really wish you would tell me before you leave the house, even if it is an emergency."_

"_Look, I said I'm sorry. It was an impulse, okay?"_

"_Impulse or not, you had enough time to come tell me what's going on."_

"… _Whatever."_

He heard the door that belonged to Leon's room close, and their mom's heels clicking down the steps of the staircase. Soon, the front door was opened and then closed, saying that their mom just left for work.

He looked at the digital clock that sat on his desk. It was ten minutes after eight in the morning. He threw the covers off his lower torso and got out of bed. Finding a shirt to put over his rather skinny upper torso, he made his way out of his room, and was on his towards Leon's.

Sora opened the door a little, just to peek inside to see if Leon passed out yet.

Well, he was passed out… on the floor. The brunette opened the door completely and stepped inside his older brother's room. Sora could only assume he had a very tiring night to be asleep on the floor, on top of the dirty pile of clothes he had in the middle of his room no less. There wasn't much light since Leon duct taped a large piece of card board to the window to block out the sun, but he managed to find a blanket in the mess that was Leon's room.

Sora just draped the green blanket over his brother's sleeping form before stepping back out of the room.

_It was a Saturday morning, so that naturally meant cartoons._

It was noon when Leon woke up and made his way down stairs. It wasn't surprising to find Sora lying on the floor, less than two feet away from the television. He took notice of the half eaten cereal that looked more like oatmeal now that it had soaked up the milk in the bowl.

"When did you get home?" Sora asked without even turning to look at his brother.

Leon ran his hand through his brown hair before saying, "Around seven or eight this morning." Leon took his usual seat on the couch. "It was tiring. Damn doctors are just too fucking slow," he muttered, more to himself than Sora.

"Is she all right?" Sora rolled backwards, so that he was now looking ay Leon instead of the T.V.

"She was throwing up blood for some reason. Doctors spent the whole night running tests on her," he said, placing his elbows on his knees and placed his head in his hands. "Yuffie was released this morning, and she seems fine now. It seems like her parents were worried over nothing seeing as how they thought she was going die."

Sora raised his eyebrows at that, but couldn't think of a reasonable thing to say.

"Yuffie said she was going to your game today," Leon continued. "I guess I'll go, too."

"It's been awhile hasn't it?"

"Yeah, I haven't been to a baseball game of any kind in ages," Leon rubbed his eyes before cracking a grin at his younger sibling.

And in return, Sora smiled back.

(XXX)

The game started at thirty minutes after one in the afternoon. And as usual, Sora's team was winning. Usually, the school had a rather terrible team, but Sora was this year's secret weapon. His batting stance was almost perfect, hardly ever missing a pitch. His pitching was top notch, too, striking out anyone who was at bat.

"They don't wear uniforms for this shit anymore?" Leon asked.

"Nope, budget cuts are rather bad this year," Yuffie answered. Leon was surprised to see the bleachers filled completely with parents, friends, and the like at a school baseball game. It was never like this when he was younger.

And Yuffie seemed to be doing rather well considering what happened last night. Leon guessed she really was all right, even though she had a green hoodie, a yellow scarf, and a pair of beige pants on in such nice weather. He couldn't really talk though; he himself was wearing the clothes he had on yesterday and slept in.

"Hey, Sora's at bat! C'mon Leon, time to cheer!" Yuffie exclaimed, clearly ignoring the fact Leon wasn't exactly the cheering type.

The crowds in the bleachers roared as the brunette at bat scored yet another home run for his team; the ball flew behind the bleachers.

As time drew on, it became the sixth inning. Sure, the game was pretty much over at a score of 10 to 2, but the two teams continued to play for fun. Sora's team was outfield now, while their opponents from another school were in field.

"Who's that silver haired kid at bat?" Leon asked out of curiosity. "From what I've seen, the coach had him sitting on the bench through majority of the game."

"I dunno, but his stance is pretty good," Yuffie pointed out.

When the silver haired teenager at bat did swing, the crowd was shocked.

_Why didn't the coach put him in earlier!_

The kid got a home run, a pretty good one, too. Sora was sitting on the bench, since his team's coach said he wasn't needed anymore. He was 'wowed' to see anyone coming close to his level of skill.

"Well, I'll be damned," said Sora's coach. "I hate to say this, but that kid can easily rival you."

Sora heard him, but didn't take any real notice. When the platinum haired player swung, his stance distantly reminded him of Leon's old form.

All noise and such was cut short when a sound from down the street caught everyone's attention. It sounded like metal crashing into metal, leading everyone there to believe there was a car crash at the intersection. Naturally, the crowds in the stands were quiet before rushing out off the bleachers, off the field, and down the street.

The players were heading towards the commotion, too. Sora found his brother and Yuffie waiting for him on the bottom step of the stands.

"Come on, Sora, I want to see what happened!" Yuffie said and instantly latched her fingers around Sora's skinny little arm, proceeding to drag him down the street at full speed. Leon wasn't too far behind them, yelling at them to slow down a bit, and that she should be trying to take it easy.

It was a car crash. Right in the middle of the intersection. There was all ready a huge crowd of people, not just people from the baseball game. Sora, Yuffie, and Leon couldn't see from behind all the spectators. Sora, however, managed to squeeze and weave his way through all the people, offering a few 'Excuse me, please's along the way.

When he finally emerged from behind all the people, he wasn't greeted with anything he had expected.

A woman was being carried away from the accident scene, her face obscured by blood and her own brown hair. He looked at the two cars that were ruined, and one he immediately recognized.

"Oh my- Sora, are you okay?" Yuffie was behind him, her voice was gentle and kind instead of her usual loud, and pleasantly obnoxious tone. Leon was next to her in a second, and the moment he took in the scene, his face distinctly said he regretted actually being nosy enough to come.

"Leon, can we go home now?" was all Sora asked before Leon grabbed his hand, and they made their way through the still shocked crowd. Yuffie wasn't far behind, keeping quiet.

"Yeah, we can go home."

* * *

And that's the end of the first part. I have a good idea of where I want to lead this fic, but I don't know if I want to continue. It'll be time consuming, and I start high school (with all honor classes, damnit) next week, so who know's if I'll have time for it. Read and review... please!  



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